Wednesday, February 17, 2010
** NTSB releases preliminary report on Texas air ambulance crash
** Massachusetts family seeks recognition for father’s contribution to air ambulance history
UNITED STATES NEWS
** More information is beginning to trickle on the February 5 crash of an AS 350 Eurocopter air ambulance at Fort Bliss’ McGregor Range. The El Paso Times (Darren Meritz/February 15) said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has now issued a preliminary report. According to the paper, the chopper carrying three crew members circled three times before plunging nose down to the ground. Shattered on impact, the helicopter left an 18-inch deep impact crater. The resulting fire destroyed almost all of the cockpit instruments. On a training mission at the time, the chopper’s pilot William Montgomery perished alongside flight medics John Sutter and Anthony Archuleta.
** The family of a Massachusetts pre Korean War era medic is seeking federal recognition for his contribution to air ambulance history. The Taunton Gazette (Charles Winokoor/February 15) said the son-in-law of Joseph Monsini, 78, has written to several senators to commemorate Monsini’s role in medevacing a 21-year-old trainee pilot injured in an April 20, 1950 aircraft accident. According to the newspaper, Monsini and pilot Lt. Elmer Demeter jury-rigged a stretcher to a chopper’s landing gear to convey Joseph Monterosso, 21, to hospital;with no hospital helipads yet in existence, the aircraft landed on the facility’s front lawn. The rescue took place some two months before US military involvement in Korea where medevacs rapidly became routine.
